The following includes information that is useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art, or relevant, to the presently described or claimed inventions, or that any publication or document that is specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Pathogens including intracellular and extracellular pathogens are known to cause a number of harmful diseases in humans, including, for example, tuberculosis, hepatitis, influenza, leprosy, listeriosis, typhoid fever, dysentery, plague, pneumonia, typhus, chlamydia, anthrax disease, and meningitis, amongst others. Both the ability to generate a robust cell-mediated immune response and a humoral response, elicited by traditional vaccination strategies, are encompassed herein.
Tuberculosis (TB), for example, is estimated to kill over 2 million people each year. Current methods for the treatment or prevention of tuberculosis are being challenged by the emergence of multi-drug resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria (Anderson, 2007; Mustafa, 2001). Tuberculosis is also a significant problem in livestock. The identification, treatment or prevention of TB is complicated by the inaccessability of the intracellular bacteria to the host's immune system.
It would be desirable to develop a safe, efficient and accurate method for identifying individuals who have been exposed to or are suffering from tuberculosis that overcomes many of the disadvantages of conventional diagnosis systems. Disadvantages include cost and difficulty in administering current diagnostic tests, together with low sensitivity/specificity.
There is thus a need for compositions capable of eliciting a robust immune response that is readily detectable, sensitive, and specific.
The properties of polyhydroxyalkyl carboxylates, in particular polyhydroxy alkanoates (PHAs) have been investigated for their application in bioplastics, in addition to their use as a matrix for the transport of drugs and other active agents in medical, pharmaceutical and food industry applications. Through bioengineering of the PHA molecule, the composition and expression of the PHA molecule can be manipulated to suit a particular function.
It is an object of the present invention to provide polymer particles for use in the diagnosis of tuberculosis and in the identification of tuberculosis-causing bacteria, including, for example, by immunological assays, to provide methods and compositions for eliciting an effective immune response in subjects in need thereof, or to at least provide the public with a useful choice.